<P> Private office staff and related funding is provided by the Administrator of the General Services Administration . People employed under this subsection are selected by and responsible only to the former president for the performance of their duties . Each former president fixes basic rates of compensation for persons employed for him, not exceeding an annualized total of $150,000 for the first 30 months and $96,000 thereafter . </P> <P> Former presidents are entitled to medical treatment in military hospitals; they pay for this at interagency rates set by the Office of Management and Budget . Two - term presidents may buy health insurance under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program; a GSA legal opinion ruled Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush ineligible . </P> <P> Former presidents were entitled from 1965 to 1996 to lifetime Secret Service protection, for themselves, spouses, and children under 16 . A 1994 statute, (Pub. L. 103--329), limited post-presidential protection to ten years for presidents inaugurated after January 1, 1997 . Under this statute, Bill Clinton would still be entitled to lifetime protection, and all subsequent presidents would have been entitled to ten years' protection . On January 10, 2013, President Barack Obama signed the Former Presidents Protection Act of 2012, reinstating lifetime Secret Service protection for his predecessor George W. Bush, himself, and all subsequent presidents . </P> <P> Richard Nixon relinquished his Secret Service protection in 1985, the only president to do so . </P>

How long does a president have secret service protection