Health insurance helps cover the cost of prescription drugs but the medications still take a bite out of family budgets. There are cost-cutting options out there.

Name brand drugs can be expensive and without insurance they might be out of reach.

A critical mistake that many people make is assuming that their health insurance drug coverage is the most cost-effective way to pay for prescriptions. Often, it's not.

Wal-Mart, Target, CVS, Walgreens and Hy-Vee are some of the companies offering their own drug savings plans. Some will charge a small annual fee to join, and all work by substituting generics for name brand drugs.

In a typical insurance plan, a prescription for the blood pressure drug Lisinopril would cost $240 a year but with a pharmacy savings plan it's just $52 plus a $20 annual fee -- a savings of $168.

Another critical mistake many make is assuming pharmacies will always tell them about the savings. Chain pharmacies advertise their cheaper generic medications but if you don't ask for their alternative plan you'll pay a higher price.

Dr. Robert Garis, a Creighton pharmacology professor, says, "A lot of times they're not saying anything because they have to make it up somewhere."

Dr. Garis says pharmacists need $10 to break even and that's for just one prescription.

A third critical mistake that people make is failing to do comparison shopping.

Dr. Greg Babbe, with UNMC says, "Shopping it out - it may be between $75 to $125 for a month for the same prescription depending on which pharmacy people go to."

Walgreen's at 30th and Dodge quoted us a price of $118 for a Zoloft prescription. For the exact same prescription at the Oakview Hy-Vee it was $104. We also found variation within the same chain. A Zoloft prescription costs $119 at the Hy-Vee on Q Street.

Experts tells us that you can't underestimate the power of just shopping around when it comes to filling prescriptions. That's something many rarely even think about.

But keep in mind, if you have multiple prescriptions for various ailments, limit the number of pharmacies you use. That will increase the chance that pharmacists will catch any potential drug interactions.