In this Commonwealth Fund–supported study published in the American Journal of Public Health, researchers compared the effect that having a choice of health plans has on California Medicaid beneficiaries enrolled in managed care. Beneficiaries without a choice of plan enrolled more quickly, while those with a choice were more likely to delay enrollment in a plan. The authors also found that beneficiaries with a plan choice were admitted to the hospital at a higher rate for conditions that could have been treated earlier in an ambulatory care setting.