The states’ insurance commissioners have gone on the offensive after several media reports questioned the efforts of state insurance regulators in the handling of American International Group Inc. policies.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners in a statement called press reports about AIG accounts and state insurance regulators “incomplete and misleading.”

The debate over state regulators occurs as Congress and President Barack Obama seek wider federal regulation of insurance and financial services. The president and members of Congress have used the AIG situation as the example for why federalization of insurance should occur. State insurance commissioners opposed federalization of insurance regulation, which would weaken their role and state control of insurance matters.

The U.S. government has invested nearly $180 billion into AIG since last September when its future appeared bleak. Despite large losses in its Financial Products division, AIG’s property-casualty units were the collateral for government funds. In keeping with the plans, several life and property-casualty units have been sold and are in play as the company looks to pay back the government loans.

“As public officials, it is the responsibility of the NAIC and state regulators to correct any misinformation that is being circulated,” said Therese M. (Terri) Vaughan, NAIC’s chief executive officer. “Consumer protection is our first and foremost concern. The 71 state-regulated insurance entities within AIG are financially sound and are fully able to pay claims.”

Kermitt J. Brooks

As part of its campaign, Kermitt Brooks, acting New York insurance superintendent and chair of the NAIC’s AIG Managing Task Force, and Joel Ario, Pennsylvania insurance commissioner and vice chair of the AIG task force, sent a letter to the editor of the New York Times. In the letter, the NAIC states that insurance regulators are engaged in a coordinated, comprehensive review of AIG’s U.S. insurance company subsidiaries — at both the level of the individual companies and within and across the entire group of companies.

“During this extremely critical time, it is vital that important voices in the public discourse such as The New York Times, act and speak responsibly with the full recognition that making inappropriate assertions based on incomplete information ultimately hurts both policyholders and taxpayers,” the letter said.

Just one day after the U.S. government agreed to provide AIG with an initial $70 billion, Ario told CNBC that ultimately government loans would be safe because of the viability of AIG’s property-casualty units.