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National Health Freedom Action and National Health Freedom Coalition look forward to what this year may bring to our health freedoms. The following are some health freedom issues to watch as the year goes forward:

Fluoride trial heads for a final showdown with oral arguments scheduled for March 3, 2026

 As an epic health freedom battle that was roundly ignored by media during most of the seven years it wound its way through a federal district court, the fluoride trial seemed to end with a stunning victory for the plaintiffs. Fluoride Action Network (FAN) and other fluoride critics had sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the failure to protect the American public from the “unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children” that fluoridation poses. The judge sternly ordered the EPA to adopt a rule to protect America from the risk and that should have been the end of that; but the EPA was stubbornly unmoved and, instead, appealed the judge’s verdict to a federal court of appeals.

Judge Edward Chen

The EPA’s appeal moved from the battle over the safety of fluoridation -that contest was over- and instead directed its attack on Judge Edward Chen, the trial court judge, sharply criticizing the way he conducted the trial. The EPA’s brief to the appeals court said that Judge Chen had “commandeered” the trial to the benefit of the plaintiffs by accepting evidence that he should not have accepted, which actually was a six-year government study showing harm and several other gold standard studies. The EPA’s brief also claimed that the plaintiffs had no standing to sue in the first place, and that contention alone, if found valid, would cause dismissal of the entire lawsuit, even at this late date. (Judge Chen had carefully weighed the issue of standing and had ruled that they did have standing). It is a bit strange to think that, in a country where 160 million are being forced to drink, cook, and bathe with fluoridated water, nobody could be found who had standing to sue over it! 

Weighing the odds in the upcoming showdown, FAN and the other plaintiffs continue to be represented by attorney Michael Connett, who, with his detailed knowledge of fluoride science and the law, carried the trial court case to victory. The EPA’s appellate arguments seem sketchy, thrown together to try to find something that would stick. On the other hand, no appeal to an appellate court is a sure thing. If two out of three appellate judges want to throw the entire case out, the EPA’s arguments give them something to grab onto. Oral arguments for the appeal are on Zoom at 10 a.m. Pacific time on March 3, 2026, and are expected to wrap up in one hour. People hoping for freedom from having to drink fluoridated water, and anyone rooting for health freedom in general, will be wanting to join Zoom and watch the drama!

Attorney Michael Connett

Will the US finally stop using mercury amalgam dental fillings?

For more than three decades the science has been strong enough to compel an end to the use of mercury amalgam fillings. But, in 2009, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), still in the thrall of Big Pharma and other special interests, followed the dogma of the dental establishment and ruled that dental amalgam fillings, which are half mercury and which serve as a mercury-delivery system, are fine, fine, fine. Not only does this mercury go into the body of the person with the amalgam filling, but the EPA estimates that total pollution from dental mercury in the US is 28 tons per year, and of that total, that dental offices discharge 5.1 tons of mercury into publicly owned treatment works.

In 2021, change was coming, and with more and more countries banning amalgams, the FDA published a press release admitting that placement of mercury amalgams in the mouths of pregnant women, children, and people with neurological disorders was something to avoid. Then in 2025, there was greater change when the European Union’s ban on mercury amalgam fillings took effect and when 153 countries, including the United States, at a conference for the Minamata Convention on Mercury, agreed to phase out dental mercury amalgams by 2034. US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke by video at the convention and showed strong support for the phase out. Kennedy, of course, has been an environmental attorney legendary for fighting mercury, and not just in fish. With the approval of Kennedy as HHS Secretary, hopes for ending mercury amalgams were raised high, and with Marty Makary, MD, a highly respected, high-integrity physician, as the FDA Commissioner, the stars are truly aligned for change.

FDA Commissioner
Marty Makary, MD

The wheels are turning.  In the summer months of 2025, well-worded petitions were crafted and filed with the FDA, asking that the 2009 amalgam rule be revised, ending the harm that was done to American health by its unscientific findings. The petitions presented unassailable evidence of the harm to health caused by the presence of amalgam mercury fillings in a person’s mouth. 

With the new atmosphere of reform and integrity at FDA, we fully expect that the FDA will welcome the petitions, welcome the science, welcome the chance to protect the American people from this mercury menace. It looks like 2026 is the year that the placement of mercury amalgams will finally be banned in the United States and, with that, the US will serve as a model to the rest of the world, wherever amalgams are still being used.

Will a recent US Supreme Court ruling help keep religious exemptions from vaccine mandates alive?

The US Supreme Court in its decision in Miller v. McDonald, (December 8, 2025), regarding whether New York state must allow religious exemptions to vaccine mandates for public schools, vacated the lower court ruling which upheld New York’s mandate, and sent the case back to the lower court for a new decision consistent with Mahmoud v. Taylor, a case where religious beliefs were upheld as a basis for parental vaccine exemptions. We will be watching next for the ruling and opinion of the Federal Appellate Court and then watch for the impact that ruling may have on the other states that do not recognize religious exemptions to vaccine mandates. States that we expect would immediately be impacted are New York and Connecticut. Other states, including Maine and West Virginia, might also follow and allow religious exemptions. We even wonder if California, the most authoritarian, anti-exemption state will be budged into allowing a parental religious exemption. Coercive California not only has banned religious exemptions but has limited the ability of doctors to grant medical exemptions, and its strident coerciveness has caused many families with young children to leave the golden state and move to a “freedom state” where they will be free to decide when and how many vaccines their children should be given.

Will the FCC finally comply with the court order to review the science about the safety of wireless radiation?

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has miserably failed to protect the American public from harmful over-exposure to wireless radiation, known as radiofrequency or RF radiation. Wireless radiation has long officially been assumed safe for the health of living things by the FCC, despite years and thousands of studies showing that it is not.

In 2013, FCC began an in-depth review of its safety limits for RF radiation and opened a docket for public comment. Thousands of pages of documents including scientific articles showing harm from this radiation and comments from many individuals showing harm to their persons were entered into the docket. The FCC in 2019, despite all the evidence of harm, announced that it had found no reason to modify or improve its safety guidelines. Plaintiffs, including Children’s Health Defense (CHD) and Environmental Health Trust (EHT), filed suit and in 2021, the DC Circuit Court ordered the FCC to actually review the scientific evidence showing the potential harms about wireless radiation so that this evidence could be taken into account for safety standards.  The FCC has not complied and the battle continued. 

In 2023, CHD filed a motion requesting that the FCC comply with the DC court order.  The FCC ignored this motion, and no action was taken on the motion. In 2025, EHT filed a Petition which essentially requests that FCC follow the court order.  CHD joined the Petition and filed a renewed separate motion for similar relief.  So far, the FCC still has not followed the court order and has done nothing to review the thousands of studies showing harm from this radiation. In 2026 we will be watching to see whether the DC Circuit Court takes up this case again, and whether the FCC will finally look at the scientific evidence showing harm from this radiation so that action can occur to keep the public safe. Don’t count on the FCC, captured by the wireless industry, to easily change its ways.

FCC opens docket for potential rulemaking to give even more away to the wireless industry

 Instead of complying with the court order, the FCC has been attempting an end run around the safety issue, by issuing a proposal for a new FCC “rule” which, if adopted, would further take away local governmental control over placement of cell towers and antennas. The wireless industry would have the ability to create a dense infrastructure allowing for technology like self-driving cars, but also potentially for a digital future allowing governmental control of the citizen population. Industry would be able to put a cell tower right next to your home without any reasonable notice or ability to impact siting decisions. The FCC has a docket open for public comment on its proposals and comments can be filed until January 15, 2026.  Click here to add a comment yourself!

Will changes occur in the Affordable Care Act and will changes support health freedoms?

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law in 2010, with insurance premium subsidies, misleadingly called “premium tax credits,” set to expire on December 31, 2025, and expire they did. As Congress did not take action insurance costs have now increased for millions of Americans.  

What happens now in 2026?  The US Congress will be looking into the ACA and debating what federal health care insurance should look like going forward in this country. The ACA has had positive impacts on the healthcare of Americans, for example, people with pre-existing conditions were no longer denied coverage, and children under the age of 26 could stay on parents’ health care. After 15 years of the ACA, however, it appears that the ACA has enriched the insurance companies and the HMO insurance entities, serving their interests more clearly than serving the health care needs of the public. 

As a stopgap for those with lower income who qualify for a hardship exemption, a lower insurance payment is available. Also, President Trump floated the idea that the federal monies previously sent directly to insurance companies as subsidies could instead go to individuals for their own choice of health insurance. Democrats are mainly advocating for extending the ACA subsidies for another three years; Republicans are looking into health savings accounts, a tax deduction approach, which would give individuals more discretion over how to spend their health care dollars.

We will be watching to see whether a health insurance overhaul will give people more freedom to decide about their own health care decisions. For example, will they be as able to choose holistic dentistry as they would conventional dentistry? Will they be as able to choose homeopathy or other natural healing methods rather than drug and vaccine oriented medical care? 

2025 brought successes for the health freedom movement, and 2026 promises to bring even more! 

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