Conservative commentator David Frum in the New York Times Magazine this weekend surveyed the political landscape for Republican economic policies. His conclusion? Growing economic inequality is not good for Republican candidates—and lack of attention to health care reform is one big reason the middle class is having such a rough time.

"As America becomes more unequal, it also becomes less Republican. The trends we have dismissed are ending by devouring us," he wrote.

Frum argued that during the Bush presidency, 2001–2008, employers paid more for labor, about 25 percent more. "Yet almost all of that money was absorbed by the costs of health insurance, which doubled over the Bush years." In the 1990s, he said, the advent of HMOs helped slow down health inflation.

"Out of their flat-lining incomes, middle-class Americans have had to pay more for food, fuel, tuition and out-of-pocket health-care costs. In the past few months, they have suffered sharp tumbles in the value of their most important asset, their homes. Their mood has turned bleak," he wrote, urging fellow conservatives to "stop denying reality" and respond to middle class income stagnation.

He said conservatives should spend less time talking about income taxes and more time seeking a solution to health care inflation. In Frum’s view, just changing the tax code to encourage people to buy their own insurance rather than get it through their jobs, will only begin to solve the problem.

Frum went on to praise Utah Republican Sen. Robert Bennett for working with Oregon Democrat Sen. Ron Wyden on bipartisan health reform legislation. (For more on how the Healthy Americans Act would cover all Americans read this post by New America's health policy director Len Nichols, who discusses the employer tax exclusion and its potential role in the health reform conversation.)

Frum also had a few passing kind words for Mitt Romney's role in the Massachusetts reform, but concluded, "It remains unfortunately true that the Republican Party as a whole regards health care as 'not our issue'—and certainly less exciting than another round of tax reductions."

With one party, then the other, getting their convention bounces, with issues shifting kaleidoscopically from moose hunting to mortgage meltdowns, it's hard to predict what images and ideas will be most salient for voters come November. But we hope that both sides remember, as Frum has, that however they define our nation's problems, health reform needs to be part of the solution.