| Summary: | Children in the United States suffered almost 118,000 cases of physical abuse in 2015. One factor that might help decrease child physical abuse is health care coverage. This paper presents a justification for a link between health care coverage and reductions in child physical abuse and, though it does not assess specific causal mechanisms, examines evidence for such a connection. The paper uses panel data linear regression analysis to explore state level physical abuse and health care coverage rates. Findings indicate a statistically significant relationship between increases in child health care coverage rates, including both private coverage and Medicaid coverage, and decreases in child physical abuse.
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