KENTUCKY — This week we’re talking about November being National Diabetes Month, a time when communities across the country team up to bring attention to diabetes.

The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization funded by an endowment that works to make Kentuckians healthier.

The Foundation advocates for many health policies and research across the Commonwealth, including expanding a cap on the cost of a 30-day supply of insulin to those not covered by state-regulated health care, capping the cost of diabetes-related supplies and creating an “Urgent-Need Insulin” program and a “Continuing Access to Insulin” program.

"It's hard to manage and one of the problems is particularly in some of our impoverished areas in the state access to health care because we've got a ton of people here in Kentucky who are walking around with diabetes and don't even know it, so they're not managing it at all. We've got a third of the entire population, now that's a mind blowing statistic. But 1/3 of the people here in Kentucky have what is referred to as pre-diabetes. In other words, they're likely or possibly going to get diabetes," explains Ben Chandler, president and CEO of Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky 

Adults in the U.S. with obesity pay, on average, double for medical care compared to those of normal weight — an average of $2,500 more annually.

If current trends continue, the CDC says 1 in 3 Americans will develop diabetes sometime in their lifetime. While diabetes can be managed, it can damage vital organs. People with diabetes have a shorter life expectancy than people without the disease.