The Invisible Patient: Racism, Risk-Avoidance, and Structural Inequities in Modern Healthcare

This paper examines the impact of healthcare corporatization on marginalized populations. Healthcare corporatization broadly refers to the historical devolution of healthcare decision-making to private corporations-resulting in the racial stratification of health-promoting resources. This paper's primary contribution is the conceptualization of the invisible patient-an analytical tool used to explore the ways in which structural racism, and healthcare corporatization shape the healthcare experiences of Black populations. Through the lens of structural racism theories, and in conversations with essentialist and constructivists ideas of race within the healthcare system, this paper explores the mechanisms through which the invisible patient concept contributes to the discussion of racial health and healthcare inequities.