President Bush is sending to Congress this week a plan to pressure states to limit court awards for medical malpractice. States would be encouraged to adopt limits on the amounts that malpractice victims can collect for pain and suffering, in the belief that lower insurance premiums for doctors will allow them to provide more services to more people.

Of 326 Evening Sun readers and other callers to SUNDIAL yesterday, 232, or 71 percent, think the monetary amounts victims of medical malpractice can collect for pain and suffering should be limited. Twenty-eight percent, or 94, believe that monetary awards should not be limited.

"It's Your Call" represents a sampling of opinions from certain segments of the community, but it is not balanced demographically, as would be done in a scientific public opinion poll.