REPORTER: An analysis from AARP showed that the sickest patients will pay nearly $26,000 a year in premiums under the new health-care law and that $8 billion which was included in that amendment this morning is not nearly enough to lower those costs.

So I’m wondering, how does that, which would be a major premium hike on the sickest patients, square with the president’s promise to both lower premiums and take care of those with preexisting conditions?

SPICER: So it sounds interesting to me that, without — there are so many variables that are unknown, that to make an analysis of that level of precision, it seems almost impossible.

Let me give you an example. So right now preexisting conditions are covered in the bill. They always have been; we’ve talked about that before. States have a right to receive a waiver. If someone has continuous coverage, that’s never going to be an issue, regardless of — no circumstance does anyone with continuous coverage would ever have a problem with preexisting.

If someone chose not to have coverage for 63 days or more, and they were in a state that opted out, and they had a preexisting condition, and they were put into a high-risk pool — then we’ve allocated an additional $8 billion over five years to help drive down those costs.

So for someone to know how many people that is, what number of states are going to ask for and receive a waiver is literally impossible at this point. So to do an analysis of any level of factual basis would be literally not a [possibility].