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The U.S. is slated to enter a period of medical cost equilibrium, where the forces that drive up health costs are offset by a demand for value-based health care system, according to a report released to The Daily Caller News Foundation Tuesday morning by PriceWaterhouseCoopers Health Research Institute (PwC).

PwC projects the medical cost trend to be 6.5 percent in 2017, a growth rate nearly half that of 2007.

A medical cost trend is the projected percentage point increase in the cost of treating a given patient from one year to the next. The data is incredibly valuable for players in the medical field, as it allows them to anticipate the costs of doing business from year to year. Insurance companies, for example, use medical cost trends to forecast premium increases for the future.

"Single-digit growth is the now the new normal," PwC Health Research Institute leader Ben Isgur told TheDCNF. "No longer will we see huge fluctuations."

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