Following up with... not much.

A week and a half ago I posted about some pretty awful statistics concerning African American women in Memphis and breast cancer mortality rates. The numbers alone were distressing: in Memphis, Tenn., African American women diagnosed with breast cancer are more than twice as likely to die of their illness than white women, the highest racial disparity out of the twenty-five largest cities in America.

What really got me mad, though, was the fact that this study was largely ignored by both press and electeds in Tennessee.

I kept waiting to do a follow up to that post, thinking that a non-blogger would pick it up and spread the outrage. Perfect timing, with the healthcare law before the Supreme Court, right? Didn't the whole country just get really pissed off and fired up over breast cancer, like, last month?

Well, it's been almost two weeks since that study was released, and as of this morning, there was still only one Tennessee paper who had reported on it. Aisling Maki of The Daily News in Memphis put out her story last Wednesday, and it was an excellent piece. You should definitely read it.

And of the nearly twenty (twenty!) individuals representing Memphis or parts of it in Nashville and in Washington, Representative Steve Cohen (TN-9) alone stood up for his constituents. On the floor of the House of Representatives, Rep. Cohen referenced the study, saying that the findings were unacceptable.

Watch Rep. Cohen's short speech from last week:

And that's it.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate what the Daily News published and what Rep. Cohen said -- some fine reporting and a welcome display of leadership in Congress. However, were it not for some bloggers far more talented than I am, I don't have much confidence that this study would have received even this much attention.

But really: that's all?

Lost in the mess of who's paying for birth control, and weirdos dressing up like Ben Franklin and yelling about socialism, is the real goal of the Affordable Care Act: to make healthcare affordable for everyone, including those who are least able and most vulnerable. What's happening in Memphis is the product of a broken healthcare system. Instead of lifting up Memphis as a city that needs the Affordable Care Act to save its inhabitants, or making Memphis a success story of affordable healthcare, Tennessee is sweeping Memphis and its women under the rug: our dirty little secret, hidden in the corner of the state.

Do I sound pissed? You're reading that right.