Before he moved to town in 2016, Dr. Kevin Casey served as a Navy trauma surgeon during the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, when he’s not performing 10-hour surgeries or making his rounds, Casey and his team of billers at Santa Barbara Vascular Specialists do battle with American insurance carriers over their routine denial of care.
Casey is constantly frustrated by the machinations of the private health insurance market, describing it as a fundamentally broken system that prioritizes profits above all else. But the tactics of one particular company ― UnitedHealthcare, the largest health insurer in the United States that reported $448 billion in revenue last year ― have appalled and “enraged” him, he said.
“While their immoral actions are too numerous to state, my most recent interaction with them was inexcusable and exemplifies yet another breach of their contract with patients,” Casey wrote in a letter to the Independent, which was followed this week by an interview…