The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other small business groups lobbied hard against President Obama’s health care reform bill, predicting mandates to provide employees coverage would be disastrous to small businesses.

A new study by the RAND Corporation suggests the new law may be good for small business employees. RAND used a micro simulation model to predict how employers will react to health care reform.

The study shows that when the bill’s provisions take full effect, 95% of American workers will have health insurance through their jobs, up from 85% now, according to a blog in Time magazine.

The study predicts that the number of small business employees who receive health insurance coverage through their employers will rise from about 60% to nearly 86%.

Businesses with fewer than 50 employees will be exempt from the employer mandate. But according to the study, these businesses won’t have to provide coverage but they will because of employee demand coupled with lower-cost insurance options available to businesses.

Small business owners will have to deal with more paperwork required by the bill, which can become time-consuming and expensive, says Time.

Another study by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that in 2010, even before the health care reforms took effect, 59% of small businesses provided insurance to workers, up 13% from 2009.

It’s not all good news for workers. The Kaiser study also shows that employees continue to be burdened with higher deductibles, co-payments, and premium costs.

How health care reform actually plays out for small business owners and workers will become clearer over the next few years as the provisions of the bill are phased in.

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