Health care is expensive, even for those with insurance. My treatment with the breast cancer drug Herceptin cost $5,000 every three weeks for 52 weeks. Insurance paid 80 percent; I was responsible for 20. That's $1,000 every three weeks. Not exactly affordable.

What many of us don't know is that we can play an active role in cutting our health care bills. We can shop around for everything, for example. Before filling a prescription, consider comparing prices offered at mail-order and online pharmacies with those of larger retailers. You may even find that mom and pop shops offer competitive rates since they can set their own pricing. Don't forget about generic drugs too. Ask your doctor if a generic version of your medication is just as good as a brand name drug. If so, go for the price break.

Did you know that lab work is more expensive if you get it at a hospital? Ask your doctor for other trustworthy locations and save a few bucks.

Beginning January 1st, an additional $1 dollar cigarette tax will be added to each pack of cigarettes purchased in Texas. CBS 11 News is reporting that this will raise the price of a pack of cigarettes to $4 dollars, or ten more dollars a carton, and smokers are stocking up on cartons of cigarettes before the tax hike goes into effect.

In the past, states that have increased taxing of cigarettes have seen a positive effect on the number of people who quit smoking, for no other reason than purchasing cigarettes becomes too cost prohibitive. The American Cancer Society (ACS) is looking forward to this happening, as they predict it will keep 300,000 people from starting up and cause 100,000 current smokers in Texas to quit.

Smoking has indeed become an expensive habit since the days when the government gave away cartons of cigarettes to World War II soldiers in the belief it calmed their nerves.

Meanwhile, back in Texas, CBS 11 News quoted Discount Cigarettes manager Patrick Ingram as saying, "Every state has their own tax, so you're not supposed to take large quantities across the border. So, people will go buy truck loads and bring across the border, or just steal."

That's probably true, to a lesser extent, but the ACS is right, the increased overall price for a pack of cigarettes when the new tax is implemented will prompt more people to quit smoking and deter even more from starting a habit that is not only increasingly expensive but just plain bad for your health.

All Macy's stores nationwide are having a Macy's Shop for a Cause day on September 16th, 2006. If you make a five dollar donation to breastcancer.org then you will receive a 20 percent off discount card for the entire day.

Breastcancer.org is a non profit organization and their mission is to help women and their loved ones make sense of the complex medical and personal information about breast cancer, so they can make the best decision for their lives. This year is breastcancer.org's fifth anniversary.

There are more fundraisers coming up in the month of September on the breastcancer.org website. There might be something in your area so check it out!

Each year, Safeway, a major-chain grocery store, raises money for prostate cancer and breast cancer. They do it in a very effective way. As your groceries are being rung up at the check-out stand, the cashier asks if you would like to add a dollar to your grocery bill total for cancer research. Because it is seldom possible to get out of a grocery store without spending several hundred dollars, adding one more dollar for a worthy cause is easy to agree to do. Safeway devotes one month to prostate cancer and one month to breast cancer.

On June 5, Safeway formally launched its annual Prostate Cancer Awareness Month fundraiser. Now in its sixth year, the company has raised more than $12.7 million for prostate cancer research. Safeway's goal this year is to raise $5 million dollars. In addition to raising funds for prostate cancer research and treatment, Safeway is launching an early detection and awareness campaign. The stores will be offering discounted prostate cancer screening. Involving a simple blood test to check the level of prostate specific antigen, PSA, in the blood stream, Safeway will charge $10 dollars for a test that typically runs about $35 dollars. Facts about prostate cancer will be printed in the weekly sales circulars. A message can be heard on the company's in-store radio network and is printed on quart containers of Lucerne brand milk and on paper grocery bags. A comprehensive campaign if you ask me.