Congressman Dave Loebsack shakes hands with constituents in Washington Monday. Photo by Sally Y. Hart

Twenty U.S. veterans died each day from suicide in 2014.

Representative Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa) is working to ensure access to mental health care for veterans under the proposed Sgt. Brandon Ketchum Never Again Act. The bill is named in honor of a Marine who went to the VA Hospital in Iowa City seeking help who was denied care and then took his own life. Loebsack explained the legislation in Washington Monday at a veterans town hall meeting, where any veteran enrolled in the VA health care system who asks to be admitted to a VA medical center for inpatient psychiatric care must be provided care at that facility. Or if the beds are full, the VA must find care for that veteran at another medical center.

The proposed health care bills in Washington D.C. and cuts to Medicaid in regards to veterans were also discussed, which Loebsack said he doesn’t have exact figures on, but one in five Iowans have Medicaid, and that it’d likely greatly impact some veterans. According to 2015 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 1.75 million veterans have Medicaid as a source of coverage nationwide.

Cuba, Russia, the overall cost of war, and drones were also discussed. This week, the week of Independence Day, Loebsack held his sixth annual veterans town hall series.