dr. makary? guest: there is a broad range of treatment. in my own center, there has been less treatment. we see the cancer and we go in and we take out the cancer. and when someone needs back surgery, it is a different world. people in their own specialty, that is, people that do pap smears say that there are up to 40% of them that are unnecessary. hart stands, pacemakers -- people have vastly different rates of over treatment. but what we are seeing is that doctors in that specialty are publishing in that journal -- in the journal. and a peer review process is not always a fair process. but the control board of american -- of american medicine is now listing the things that you should think twice about having if they are recommended to you. host: the next trough -- the next call comes from tammy in utah. caller: what i would like to say about medical insurance, the reason why i am leaning toward obama -- and i really do not know what obamacare is, but from what i understand ifrom mitt romney, he

dr. makary is here now. >> according to good studies by doctors, many tests are completely unnecessary.to get serious about health care costs and if patients are going to get good-quality care, we need to cut the waste in health care, not just pay for it differently. >> so how do you achieve transparency? >> well, there are good metrics now of performance. there are good websites, consumer ratings, hospital compare is a great place where you can go and look up a hospital's performance, their infection rates. soon you'll see their readmission or bounce-back rates. these are useful metrics. and in the next couple of years, we are seeing a transformation of health care, so that it's more transparent and people can look up where to go, just like they would look up a restaurant's ratings before they go to a new restaurant. >> so i have some pretty staggering numbers on health care costs i want to share. nearly $2.6 trillion in 2010. $8,000 a person, the average hospital stay was $18,000. how is it that more transparency can cut down on those costs? because those costs are fixed right? they'r

dr. marty makary. this is his book. his book is called "unaccountable." that is coming up in just a few minutes. we want to get an update on some of the senate races around the country. joining us is abby livingston, a reporter with "roll call" newspaper. we have been talking about the presidential campaign but there are some senate debates that c- span will be carrying live and that you have been covering. a star wisconsin -- let's start with wisconsin. guest: this is a state and the presidential race seems pretty competitive. president obama has pulled ahead by about five points in the latest poll. some of that is changing the trajectory of the race. tommy thompson seem to have the momentum. tammy baldwin is within the margin of error or a little ahead. host: why is that? guest: the balkwin surge corresponds with president obama getting some distance from governor romney. governor thompson was perceived as the best republican nominee. paul ryan nomination for the vp. suddenly wisconsin was back in the republican column. host: is tonight their only debat

dr. marty makary about medical errors in hospital. also a discussion with william wiatrowski and john mendeloff about workplace safety and occupational hazards. >> now, a look at the presidential election through political cartoons. a couple of weeks ago thenewseum postedartoonist panelists. we will show you as much we can until the senate debate at 11:00 eastern. >> good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. welcome to another edition of inside media. if you have been walking through the city, you may have noticed the preponderant of men and women caring along the large pads. cartoonists are in town. today is day three of the american editorial cartoonists convention meeting across town at george washington university. we were lucky enough to snag three of the cartoonist who will share with us some of their work. it will give us their take on the hectic and sometimes hysterical campaign season. seated to my left is lalo alaraz. his cartoon is seen in scores of newspapers like the los angeles times. he has produced cartoons for the l.a. we