A group of twenty state lawmakers is concerned about robocalls and mailers from the state's largest health insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina.

They want the Attorney General's staff to check if the unsolicited, prerecorded telephone calls to voters violated the law.

"They (BCBCNC) have the State Health Plan and state employees are particularly outraged because they don't have a choice about who their insurer is and they're getting mail from Blue Cross Blue Shield against a policy they believe in," said Rep. Pricey Harrison, (D) Guilford County.

The automated call alerted voters to a forthcoming mailer with a prepaid card to Senator Kay Hagan.

The card asks Hagan to oppose the creation of a government-run health insurance plan, also called the public option which would compete with private plans.

"This advocacy campaign is not at all related to the insurance its providing.  That's where the distinction is about whether it's appropriate for them to be calling voters on this issue," said Rep. Harrison.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina called the effort a business expense.

"We said from the beginning, we were going to be involved in thhe debate and the discussion.  As a result we created a communications package: a website, a mailer, follow-up calls, as you would with sany communications plan," said BCBCNC Spokesman Lew Borman.

Turns out the Attorney General's office was already checking out the insurance company's practises after a consumer complaint on the same issue October 22nd and an individual complaint from Rep. Harrison November 5th.

Assistant Attorney General David Kirkman asked BCBSNC to stop the calls immediately because his initial assessment found the robocalls did not provide contact information as required by law.

"We have received an inquiry from the Attorney General's office.  We intend to fully cooperate with that and await a decision," said Borman.

But Rep. Harrison says beyond the law it is bad public policy for BCBCNC to engage in a political campaign.

Borman said, "We said in beginning this was a business expense and something we intended to do. It's much more appropriate to hire a vendor and to use voter registration lists as opposed to customer lists."

Lawmakers sent the same complaint to Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin whose agency oversee the industry.

To hear more of this story, check out our NBC 17 News story in the video monitor above.