Historically, not entirely, although it certainly has been used as such, a mutual relationship parasitic on the taxpayer. The reality is that insurance companies have little interest in actually managing risk, in part because lawyers have so inflated both the cost of proceedings and damage awards far beyond the attendant risk but also because insurers, itself a heavily regulated business for the benefit of the big players, only want to play with money and don't give a rip about the messy details as long as they can keep raising the rate base.
In other words, it's a structural problem with lots of fingers in the pie.
That hasn't been my experience with our insurance carrier, USAA (homeowner’s policy, auto policy, and rental insurance policy for princess riverdawg). I have to answer questions every year at policy renewal time regarding conditions in and around my house, driving habits and records of the insured persons on the policy, etc. We recently had our house re-roofed and got a $100 reduction on our premium. After determining that princess did not have a car at college and rarely drives during the school year, USAA reduced the family auto insurance premium. The company also told us that if we had our smoke/CO2 detectors tied into the security alarm system, we would save money there, too. I'd say that is very pro-active risk management.