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JUSTICE GALASSO delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff, Patrecia Muranyi, sued defendant, Turn Verein Frisch-Auf, a/k/a Aurora Turner Club, Inc., under the Dramshop Act (235 ILCS 5/6--21 (West 1996)), after her husband, Wade Muranyi, was injured in an automobile accident. Plaintiff alleged that defendant served her husband alcohol and that, as a result, he became intoxicated and caused the accident. Plaintiff sought to recover the cost of the medical care that her husband received.

Defendant moved for summary judgment (see 735 ILCS 5/2--1005(c) (West 1996)), asserting that plaintiff suffered no loss because her medical expenses had been reimbursed through the health insurance coverage that the Muranyis' received as a benefit of Wade Muranyi's employment. Plaintiff responded that the collateral source rule barred the court from reducing defendant's liability by any sums she received from the insurance carrier. The trial court granted defendant summary judgment, and plaintiff timely appeals.

Plaintiff argues that, under the collateral source rule, she is entitled to recover all the damages for which defendant is liable under the Dramshop Act, regardless of whether a third party wholly unconnected with defendant has also reimbursed her for these losses. Defendant responds that plaintiff may not invoke the collateral source rule because she suffered no loss, having received all her claimed medical expenses in the form of insurance reimbursements and having paid no consideration for her husband's insurance policy. Alternatively, defendant asserts that summary judgment was proper because anything defendant owes plaintiff must be offset by the payments from Wade Muranyi's insurer.

We agree with plaintiff that the trial court erred in declining to apply the collateral source rule here and that defendant is not entitled to a setoff for the payments plaintiff received from the insurer. Therefore, we reverse the grant of summary judgment and remand the cause.

Summary judgment is proper when the pleadings, depositions, and other matters on file disclose that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. 735 ILCS 5/2--1005(c) (West 1996). Our review is de novo. Berlin v. Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center, 179 Ill. 2d 1, 7 (1997). The parties do not dispute the crucial facts, so we move directly to the issues of law involved in this appeal.

The primary point of contention is whether the collateral source rule bars the reduction of plaintiff's damages by any sums she received in insurance payments. Defendant maintains that, under Peterson v. Lou Bachrodt Chevrolet Co., 76 Ill. 2d 353 (1979), plaintiff, who did not pay for her husband's insurance, has in essence received a gratuity and may not now recover medical expenses that a third party actually paid. Plaintiff claims that Peterson does not apply because an insurer's payment of medical costs is not a gratuity and the crucial consideration is whether the payment came from a source unrelated to defendant. For the reasons that follow, we believe that plaintiff's argument is nearer the mark and that the trial court erred in ruling that her damages would have to be reduced by the amounts she received from the insurance carrier.

The collateral source rule is generally phrased in terms of common-law tort liability, but Illinois courts have also applied it to statutory causes of action, including dramshop suits (see Deel v. Heiligenstein, 244 Ill. 239 (1910) (dramshop action); Illinois Central R.R. Co. v. Prickett, 210 Ill. 140 (1904) (wrongful death); Beaird v. Brown, 58 Ill. App. 3d 18, 21 (1978) (dramshop action); Bireline v. Epenscheid, 15 Ill. App. 3d 368, 369-70 (1973) (dramshop action)). Under the collateral source rule, benefits received by the injured party from a source independent of and collateral to the tortfeasor will not diminish damages otherwise recoverable from the tortfeasor. Wilson v. Hoffman Group, Inc., 131 Ill. 2d 308, 320 (1989); Bernier v. Burris, 113 Ill. 2d 219, 242 (1986). Thus, the plaintiff may recover twice for a single injury--once from the defendant and once from the collateral source. This result leaves the rule open to the criticism that it bestows a windfall on plaintiffs, violating the principle that the purpose of tort damages is simply to make plaintiffs whole.

Courts adhering to the collateral source rule have defended this result in various ways. Some courts reason that, if there is to be a windfall, it is more just to give it to the injured party than to the wrongdoer. See Grayson v. Williams, 256 F.2d 61, 65 (10th Cir. 1958); Werner v. Lane, 393 A.2d 1329, 1335-36 (Me. 1978). Under this broad application of the rule, it makes no difference from whom the injured party received the benefits (as long as it is not the defendant) or whether he paid any consideration for them. What is crucial is that the tortfeasor not become the real beneficiary of a stranger's expenditure on behalf of the injured party. See Restatement (Second) of Torts