GUIDING HEALTH CARE REFORM: Thomas Chappuis of Sharon and Adrianne Musto of Mansfield didn’t fully realize what they were getting themselves into. It was eight years ago when these parents of children born with cleft palates launched a grass-roots effort to enact a law mandating insurance coverage for corrective surgery for cleft lip and cleft palate, which occur in about one in 800 births.

“I didn’t know it would take that long. It was a learning experience,” said Chappuis, whose son, Tom, is a senior at Sharon High School and required out-of-pocket costs for years of corrective surgery. “But now it’s done and will help generations of other families.”