Charlestown's Wendy Hood couldn't bring her husband home after a spinal injury due to people over 65 being ineligible for NDIS funding.
"It's discrimination, it's terrible," Mrs Hood said.
Greg Hood damaged his spine after falling off his bike on the Fernleigh Track at Redhead last December.
"The only thing Greg wanted was to come home," Mrs Hood said.
His accident happened after he "went over the handlebars, did a complete somersault and landed on his back".
"He hit his helmet on a post. His spine splintered and cut the spinal cord," Mrs Hood said.
It was initially thought he swerved to miss a motorbike, but police couldn't find evidence of this on security cameras in the area.
"We've come to the conclusion that he must have had a blackout," she said.
He thought he saw "people on e-scooters dressed in black", but she thinks this may have been a hallucination - although a witness said "he heard motorbikes before Greg's accident".
"It's a bit of a mystery what happened," she said.
Mr Hood couldn't walk again and spent 10 months in Royal North Shore Hospital.
He could access My Aged Care funding, but it wasn't enough to modify his house to return home and cover the cost of help from nurses.
"NDIS gives much more financial help," Mrs Hood said.
She met "quite a lot of over 65s" at Royal North Shore in the same position as her husband.
"They couldn't go home and had to go to nursing homes," she said.
Mr Hood moved to a nursing home at Waratah last month.
"The nursing home was excellent with him, but he was only there three weeks and he developed pneumonia," she said.
He died on October 5 at age 86.
Before his accident, the great-grandfather was "fit and healthy", Mrs Hood said.
The Newcastle Herald asked federal minister for the NDIS Bill Shorten whether the Hoods' case showed home care needed reform.
In response, a spokesperson said the government was "currently considering reforms to in-home aged care to be introduced from July 2025".
This was in response to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.
"The new Support at Home program is being designed to improve access to assistive technology and home modifications," the spokesperson said.
This included older people with a disability who were not eligible for the NDIS.
The Department of Health and Aged Care had commissioned a study examining ways to provide "higher levels of in-home aged care", including for seniors with a disability.
It was considering the "cost-effectiveness and safety considerations" for people with complex care needs.
The study is expected to be complete early next year to "inform decisions about the new program".
The federal government commissioned an independent review of the NDIS, with a report due for release this month. Projections have shown the NDIS will cost $44.1 billion by 2024/25 and more than $50 billion the following year.
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