STOCKTON - Paying for health coverage for its four employees may not be the top priority at Stockton Cycles on the Miracle Mile, but it's certainly a major goal. First and foremost, the new merchant just wants to make it through its first year in business.

The cost of health insurance is simply out of reach, store manager Alex Holman said, so it's not even being considered. Stockton Cycles is not alone.

California has more than 3.5 million small businesses. In fact, more than 99 percent of all firms in the state are considered small business - less than 500 employees - by the federal government. And of those, 2.5 million have no employees at all.

A recent poll of 506 randomly selected, very small businesses (with 100 employees or less) in California - released Thursday by Small Business for Affordable Healthcare - concluded there is overwhelming support for comprehensive health-care reform, with substantial support for two of the leading reform proposals pending in Sacramento. Among its major findings:

» 80 percent of those who expressed an opinion felt that companies should provide health care to their employees.

» 55 percent were in favor of paying into a statewide pool that would enable their employees to obtain coverage at favorable rates - more than three times greater than those opposed (17 percent).

» 74 percent agreed that health insurers and prescription drug companies are making health care unaffordable because of their power to dictate prices vs. 11 percent who disagreed.

"There is a real sense of obligation for small-business people to contribute something," pollster Marshall Toplansky with Core Strategies said of the significant finding that 80 percent of small employers believe they should pay for some portion of coverage.

Scott Hauge, president of another nonprofit advocacy group, Small Business California, said his group takes positions after conducting an annual online survey of its members.

"Health insurance has been our No. 1 priority," Hauge said Thursday. "We think the system is just broken."

Small Business California believes the solution lies in shared responsibility, guaranteed issuance, a reduction in costs and that the needs of small businesses must be represented in any solution.

"We think it's very important small business has a seat at the table," Hauge said.

The poll by Small Business for Affordable Healthcare found that 66 percent of the survey respondents were at least reasonably aware of the current health-care debate in Sacramento: 47 percent favored Assembly Bill 8 - the legislation proposed by Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata - as well as the proposal made by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, which is not in the form of legislation yet; 33 percent and 31 percent, respectively, were opposed. A smaller number, 42 percent, favored Senate Bill 840, the single-payer plan authored by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, while 40 percent opposed the plan.

"The status quo is just not acceptable. I think it transcends Democrats and Republicans right now. All the plans are better than doing nothing," said John Arensmeyer, founder and CEO of Small Business Majority, a Sausalito-based nonprofit advocacy group that sponsored the poll. He concluded California businesses are at a competitive disadvantage on the global stage.

"It's becoming out of control," he said.

"California's small-business owners, who employ over 50 percent of the private-sector work force, are fed up with our health-care crisis. They want bold action now, and they are more than ready to be part of the solution," Arensmeyer said.

In the case of Stockton Cycles, the new bicycle shop at 1700 Pacific Ave., Holman was blunt.

"We don't have any health insurance. We definitely would like it. We're in kind of a hazardous sport, and we all ride. We need it," Holman said. "Our priority now is really a matter of getting the business's profitability up."

Contact reporter Joe Goldeen at (209) 546-8278