What it's like to battle insurance companies
For the past six years, Rocky Schwartz has been fighting with health insurance companies over coverage for her sons.
They both suffer from severe mental illness and addiction and have been through many outpatient and inpatient therapy programs, sometimes to simply stay alive.
Schwartz and her husband have paid $300,000 out of pocket to cover those expenses and have lost insurance appeals seven times. The most recent was in March of this year.
"They do everything in their power to make it difficult, and they wear you down, and I think they do it purposely," Schwartz said of the insurance companies.
"For example, every time you make a phone call, you have to go through the prompts and get put on hold. I've been on hold for up to an hour at times," she said.
"When you finally get to a person, they refuse to give you their last name and they refuse to give you an extension, so you can never really get back to that direct person," she said. "They say they'll call you back; frequently they don't."
CBS News reached out to Schwartz's insurance providers, but they wouldn't comment on her cases because of privacy laws.
