For several months, the Prescriptions blog at nytimes.com/health has been fielding readers' questions about how the new health care law will affect them. Here are three recent ones, starting with a popular subject: health insurance exchanges, the online marketplaces, to be available starting in 2014, where individuals and small businesses will be able to compare plans and buy coverage. Q. I am a freelancer paying for my own insurance, and I can barely afford it. In 2014, will I be able to join the exchange on my own? Or will I have to purposely go uninsured for six months to be able to join? A. The health insurance exchanges are intended for self-employed people like you, and you will be able to buy coverage there with no waiting period, said Jennifer Tolbert, a health policy expert at the Kaiser Family Foundation. The six-month waiting period applies to people who buy insurance through the new state high-risk pools that will begin operating this summer. Those pools are for people who are uninsurable elsewhere because of pre-existing medical conditions. In 2014, however, the high-risk pools will no longer be necessary, because insurers will be required to accept all applicants, whether or not they have medical problems. Q. After Sept. 23 of this year, the new law bars health insurers from rescinding a policy because of a pre-existing medical problem. What are my chances of being dropped if a checkup or preventive-care visit reveals a problem? A. Don't wait to get health care because of fears that you will be kicked off your plan if you get such a diagnosis. If you have group health coverage, those plans are 'guaranteed issue' -- the insurer must accept you if you apply, and cannot drop you from the plan even if you have medical problems. If you have an individual health plan, the situation is different (except in the handful of states that require that all plans be guaranteed issue). In the individual market, insurers can generally decline to offer you insurance if you have a medical problem. Once a policy has been issued, individual plans are not supposed to drop enrollees if they get sick. But in recent years there have been well-publicized examples of 'rescissions,' in which the insurer did just that. The new health care law should change that. 'The rules are much tighter now,' Tolbert said. The new provision takes effect whenever people renew their policies or sign up for new ones after Sept. 23, after which time insurers can rescind coverage only if someone commits fraud -- by lying on an application, for example. If your health plan drops you or is not delivering benefits you think are covered, your first stop should be your state insurance department. Q. When I buy subsidized coverage from a health insurance exchange, my costs are supposed to be capped at 9.5 percent of my income. But at the same time, I'm supposed to have my choice of four different levels of coverage, from platinum, which pays 90 percent of eligible medical costs, on average, down to bronze, just 60 percent. Why would I sign up for bronze if I can have platinum for the same price? A. When the exchanges start up in 2014, people who earn up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level ($88,200 for a family of four) will be eligible for subsidies based on income. If your premium is capped at 9.5 percent, you must have an income of 300 to 400 percent of the poverty level. Lower-income families will have a lower maximum contribution. But income is only part of the calculation; the type of plan enters into the equation, as well. Those opting for the higher-end plans, platinum and gold, may wind up paying more than those who choose silver or bronze. The premium subsidies will be based on the price of the second lowest cost silver plan in a geographic area. If you sign up for that particular silver plan, you will pay no more than 9.5 percent of your income in premiums. But if you spring for a pricier gold or platinum plan, you will be responsible for paying the difference between that silver premium and those of the more expensive plans. 