Most CEOs of large US companies view tax and regulatory reform as their top policy priorities, with only three percent naming health care reform, according to a survey released Tuesday. Asked what single policy would create "the most pro-growth environment for your business," 52 percent of chief executives said tax reform and 27 percent said regulatory reform, according to a Business Roundtable survey of 141 chief executives.

Increased infrastructure investment was tagged by 15 percent of respondents, five times the number identifying health care reform, according to the Business Roundtable, a Washington business lobby group chaired by J.P. Morgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon.

The quarterly survey, which showed broad optimism among CEOs about US economic prospects, comes as the debate over health care reform takes center stage in Washington.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said in a report Monday that a Republican plan endorsed by President Donald Trump to replace Obamacare would result in some 24 million people losing health insurance by 2026. Optimism that Trump will push through with promises of tax reform and other growth policies has boosted the US stock market to successive all-time records in recent weeks, despite the lack of details on the plans. But investors fear a divisive debate on health care reform could delay, or even derail, the growth agenda. The CEO survey reflected the prevailing optimism, showing a sharp uptick in business sentiment in the first three months of 2017 compared with the fourth quarter of 2016.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2017