Almost two thirds of commercial farmers say the cost of health insurance poses the biggest threat to their livelihoods — bigger even than land costs or market pressures, according to a new study. Most farmers viewed insurance as a must-have in a dangerous occupation where a single accident could be catastrophic. But the study found that while most went to great lengths to get insurance, they cobbled it together with great difficulty.“We really would love it if we didn’t have to worry about me having a full-time job for insurance so that we could just farm and ranch,” one rancher who commuted to a full-time job 45 minutes away told researchers. "You’d get more done so you’re not doing everything in the dark at 11 o’clock at night. I’m a believer that my family would have been a little better off if I was just working part time.” Thirty-eight percent of farmers surveyed rely on public health insurance plans including Medicaid, CHIP and Medicare.