September 19, 1982

LIKE a summer vacation, shirt-sleeve campaigning has ended for Richard L. Ottinger and Jon S. Fossel. The two contestants for Representative Ottinger's Congressional seat will face each other and a college audience tomorrow in the first of 17 scheduled debates as the political season intensifies. The arena will be Iona College in New Rochelle, just down North Avenue from Mr. Ottinger's campaign headquarters. It is familiar territory for the liberal Democrat, who has served on Capitol Hill for 14 years. Assemblyman Fossel, a Republican with Conservative Party backing, is more of a newcomer to southern Westchester. The constituency he represents in Albany does not extend south of Ossining. In this autumn of redistricting, demographic change is a political fact for many politicians. Those contending in the newly drawn 20th Congressional District, which was once known as the 24th, are no exceptions.

Federal officials said today that the Office of Management and Budget was studying proposals to trim the cost of the Medicare program by requiring elderly people to demonstrate financial need as a condition of receiving benefits. The officials acknowledged that the introduction of a ''means test'' would represent a significant change, making Medicare less of an insurance program for the elderly and more of an income assistance program like Medicaid. Lyndon K. Allin, deputy press secretary at the White House, said he knew of ''no plans under consideration at the White House involving a means test for Medicare.'' November Election Cited Senior White House officials have said they were deliberately keeping themselves uninformed about details of the proposals for Medicare, Social Security and other benefit programs because they did not want to move toward decisions on such controversial issues before the Nov. 2 elections.

Most public school teachers in New York State enjoy their work, think they are doing a good job and are proud of their profession, but nearly half say they would choose another field if they had it to do over again, according to a survey conducted by The New York Times. Evidence that even dedicated teachers would look elsewhere is one sign of what appears to be a significant morale problem among public school teachers across the state. Respondents complained about excessive paper work and lack of support from their superiors, and the survey found evidence that violence, or the fear of it, was part of daily life for more than a third of the teachers. Running through their comments was a feeling that teachers no longer commanded the respect they once did -from students, parents and the community at large - and that teaching, while important and personally gratifying, was simply not appreciated by society. 'Anyone Can Do This' ''You are constantly trying to justify yourself as a professional,'' wrote a physical education teacher in Pine Bush in Orange County. A high school Spanish teacher in Jamaica, Queens, complained that ''the attitude of the public tends to look down on teachers,'' while a special-education teacher in District 20 in New York City suggested that low salaries, a widespread source of concern, were rooted in public attitudes toward the profession. ''The salary seems to say anyone can do this,'' she said.

The value of the National Football League's contract offer to the N.F.L. Players Association will be reduced for every weekend of games canceled because of a players strike, the league's chief negotiator, Jack Donlan, said yesterday. ''If they strike, our revenues will decrease,'' said Donlan, the executive director of the league's Management Council. ''The more our revenues decrease, the more it will have an impact on how much we are willing to pay the players.''

The Medical Society of the State of New York has issued its first guidelines for withholding emergency resuscitation from a terminally ill hospital patient whose heart or breathing fails. The guidelines describe the clinical circumstances under which hospital physicians may withhold potential life-prolonging medical treatment - such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation -when in their judgment such so-called ''heroic'' emergency measures are not in the best interests of a dying patient. The guidelines are strictly advisory and have no legal authority, but medical authorities are recommending that they be used as a legal defense. 4 States Now Have Guidelines The guidelines, which were approved by the society's policy-making council on Sept. 9, were mailed this weekend to the society's local branches and to the state's two major hospital associations. New York is the fourth state in which medical societies have issued such guidelines. They come when New York hospital administrators and physicians are torn by ethical considerations over such decisions and concerned about their possible criminal and civil consequences. Minnesota, North Carolina and Alabama also have guidelines, as do many individual hospitals.