On a post regarding the foolish idea that government could take over research and development of pharmaceuticals, by Megan McArdle:

My friend, have you ever taken a close look at the military procurement process? It costs a fantastic amount of money to generate products that often aren't even wanted by the end users--how many times have you read about some military service being forced to buy some gargantuan piece of equipment they don't want because the thing is being manufactured in a key congressman's district? This is how we spend four percent of our national income on something that most of the American public never sees. Forgive me if I'm not excited about applying the same process to health care.

Go read the whole thing.  In fact, read the rest of her posts for the last week.  She's been covering drug companies and their pricing model in a very common sense fashion.