I like Iowa.

The people are thoughtful, kind, and modest. The voters I ran across understand what a privilege it is to help select the next leader of the free world. (Or as one Iowan put it to me, quoting a political analyst, "We don't chose the next president of the United States, but we decide who won't be the next president of the United States.) Iowa winnows the field. Senators and Governors who are famous somebodies at home find they are just another candidate in Iowa. And behind the modesty, there is an earnest desire to do the job right. Iowans I spoke with take the caucuses seriously. They want answers and know this is their chance to get them from powerful people.

My first story on Iowa looks at the health care issue and what voters want to hear on cost containment. A couple interesting stats to consider when it comes to Iowa and health care: The state ranks high in quality, but low in costs. It also has one of the lowest ratios of doctors to patients in the country. Did I mention that more than 90% of Iowans have health insurance coverage? As an older state, much of the population is covered under Medicare. All this makes the health care debate in Iowa somewhat unusual. As Mike Abrams, Executive VP at the Iowa Medical Society put it to me: "I see candidates all the time who are rolling through our state talking about the long waiting lines for care in Canada, and what I always want to say to those candidates is 'You're standing in a state where there are long lines for care.'" In other words, Iowa doesn't have enough specialists and doctors to cover its population.

All this means Iowans may have a somewhat different take on health care reform than voters in a much larger state, where access to care is a bigger issue. Even so, I am curious to see how Iowa votes in a few months. Serious, thoughtful people taking a hard look at the candidates. Isn't that what elections are all about?